Saturday, 22 July 2006
Pakistan: The Taliban’s Silent Partner
Contributed by Bill Faith

Pakistan: The Taliban’s Silent Partner
By James Joyner

Robert Kaplan reports that the government of U.S. “ally” Pakistan is behind the steady resurgence of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

WHEN the American-led coalition invaded Afghanistan five years ago, pessimists warned that we would soon find ourselves in a similar situation to what Soviet forces faced in the 1980’s. They were wrong — but only about the timing. The military operation was lean and lethal, and routed the Taliban government in a few weeks. But now, just two years after Hamid Karzai was elected as the country’s first democratic leader, the coalition finds itself, like its Soviet predecessors, in control of major cities and towns, very weak in the villages, and besieged by a shadowy insurgency that uses Pakistan as its rear base.

[...]

[Read on.]

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 22, 2006 at 07:39 AM in Bill Faith, Islamism Delenda Est | Permalink

Comments